Her appearance and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars worldwide. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name one of the most common search strings on Google Search. Despite never winning a singles title, she reached No. She achieved greater success playing doubles, where she was at times the world No.
They referred to themselves as the " Spice Girls of Tennis". Kournikova retired from professional tennis in due to serious back and spinal problems, including a herniated disk. Louis Aces of World TeamTennis before the team folded in Kournikova was born in Moscow, Russia, on 7 June As of , he was still a part-time martial arts instructor there. Her mother Alla born had been a metre runner. Sergei Kournikov has said, "We were young and we liked the clean, physical life, so Anna was in a good environment for sport from the beginning".
Kournikova received her first tennis racquet as a New Year gift in at the age of five. Describing her early regimen, she said, "I played two times a week from age six. It was a children's program. And it was just for fun; my parents didn't know I was going to play professionally, they just wanted me to do something because I had lots of energy.
It was only when I started playing well at seven that I went to a professional academy. I would go to school, and then my parents would take me to the club, and I'd spend the rest of the day there just having fun with the kids. She signed a management deal at age ten and went to Bradenton, Florida , to train at Nick Bollettieri 's celebrated tennis academy. Following her arrival in the United States, she became prominent on the tennis scene. In December , she became the youngest player to win the and-under division of the Junior Orange Bowl tennis tournament.
Earlier, in September , Kournikova, still only 14 years of age, debuted in the WTA Tour, [ 15 ] when she received a wildcard into the qualifications at the WTA tournament in Moscow, the Moscow Ladies Open , and qualified before losing in the second round of the main draw to third-seeded Sabine Appelmans. She also reached her first WTA Tour doubles final in that debut appearance β partnering with Wimbledon girls' champion in both singles and doubles Aleksandra Olsza , she lost the title match to Meredith McGrath and Larisa Savchenko-Neiland.
